In some instances the fetus helps repair a ruptured amniotic sac | Hacker News Reader

In some instances the fetus helps repair a ruptured amniotic sac

medicalxpress.com

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"...the fetus helps repair..."

This is perfect clickbait wording

"The Fetus" = "general epithelial cell"

"Helps Repair" = "Follows well understood biochemical processes"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epithelial%E2%80%93mesenchymal...

The way that it is written implies agency, signal discrimination and focused intercession by the "Fetus" which of course is absurd

It's an interesting and novel result, no need to make it seem bigger than it is.

Now all that's going to happen is that I'm going to add a discount bias to anything coming from these sources and I will have reduced my trust in reporting (again) reducing trust overall

Great work folks, you got 1000 more hits on your article while undermining science communication again. Worth it?

agree.. they could have summarized at the beginning what they only get to at the end:

"fetal macrophages are important in mediating the wound-repairing process"

Wait what? This doesn't make any sense? If someone is fighting a cold, they exert no agency, yet it is typical in English to say "He/she is fighting off a cold". This is despite the fact that, in reality, it's the individual macrophages / immune cells doing the actual fighting. Or, a woman giving birth. At the end of the day, this is an involuntary process; there's no way someone can will themselves to stop it (as far as I know). Yet it's extremely typical to say "X gave birth". Saying a human is undergoing X biochemical process in an active voice in English does not imply agency at all.

>If someone is fighting a cold, they exert no agency

The $11 Trillion healthcare industry might disagree with you

>At the end of the day, this is an involuntary process; there's no way someone can will themselves to stop it (as far as I know)

I have three children and have been actively involved in two of their home births. Trust me when I tell you that it's a very interactive process for the mom and everyone involved.

> I have three children and have been actively involved in two of their home births. Trust me when I tell you that it's a very interactive process for the mom and everyone involved.

That's great. So have I and I can tell you with 100% certainty that telling your wife to 'stop' while she's giving birth will quickly teach you the answer on whether or not birth is voluntary. Try it next time. See what happens.

While some women may be able to exercise some control over contractions (much like we can choose to hold our breath), eventually the brain will take over and perform the action, whether you want to or not. I know of no recorded example of a woman able to stop labor. If you can find one, I will recant.

Are you not made of cells that follow biochemical processes? Where do the cells following biochemical processes end and your agentic self begin?

I was enjoying the image of a fetus busting out a needle and thread to stitch the rupture closed. You ruined it.

When I was a fetus we worked day and night on membrane repairs, not like the lazy fetuses these days!

If you don’t fix the membrane it could cause you to be born earlier so it’s in your best interest to keep it sealed as long as possible. Lazy fetuses could mean why there’s so many premature births these days though.

That is science right there

How did you know how to do it? I assume ancient knowledge passed down from the ancestors.

We googled it, like any worthwhile fetus would do

You were the R2D2 of fetuses.

blushes

This is the way!

My sibling repaired my mother's allergy when they were a fetus. Otherwise she had to gulp half of cetirizine every day to prevent the effects of allergy.

My sibling was a teratoma, so I don’t look very good in a bathing suit

Apparently stem cells from in-utero fetuses do all sorts of interesting things, and are detected all sorts of places in the mother's body for an indefinite time after pregnancy.

the amniotic sac, just like the placenta and umbilical cord, are organs we all developed as fetuses. it should not be too surprising that we have methods to repair our own organs.

Most of our organs don't/can't self repair, so it is very surprising. Excepting skin which you may want to qualify as an organ, only the liver can regenerate. All of our other organs "repair" via scarring which may replace lesions but does not perform the function of the scarred organ.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regeneration_in_humans#Natural... points out the endometrium "is the only human tissue that completely regenerates consistently after a disruption and interruption of the morphology".

> Most of our organs don't/can't self repair

That is not true. Bones heal, muscles heal, nerves grow back under some circumstances, the central nervous system compensates, every tissue fights infections and works hard to get rid of toxins where it can. These are all cases of self-repair.

Yeah some of these processes result in scarring, some of the time. That doesn’t mean it is not self repairing. In fact it is the result of the self repair!

Sorry that I jump on this, but it is incredible that we are all these advanced, beatifull, self-repairing “meat robots” and the processes work so smooth that someone doesn’t even notice all the self repairing which goes on inside their own body.

If you are wondering how an organ which stops self repairing looks like buy some meat, any meat, from a butcher and put it on your kitchen counter. It will within days start to smell bad, grow mould, liquify and eventually insects and magots will carry it away bite by tiny bite. It happens with the meat because it stopped self-repairing. It doesn’t happen with your flesh because it is constantly self-repairing.

Saying many of our bits at the macro level can't repair themselves is a recognition of our biology and that state of medical science. It doesn't take away from the fact that life is amazing

Yes, under a strict definition those are organs. But under the more common usage "a part of an organism that is typically self-contained and has a specific vital function, such as the heart or liver in humans." [1] they are not.

As for the last paragraph, I don't agree "self repairing" and "alive" are the same

[1] https://www.google.com/search?q=organ+definition

The fetus and placenta is not self but a mammalian/marsupial precursor animal that evolved live birthing instead of laying eggs co-opted genes from a virus that enables the placenta to hoodwink the mother's immune system during gestation.

This repair mechanism clearly forms part of the code cut-and-paste exercise.

Since all that humans are biologically capable of is encoded in cells, aren't cells amazing. I always wondered how knowledge is passed between generations. like a natural fear of snake shapes for example. At sone point we are just two cells. So it must be already encoded at the cell level.

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